Cecil: Justified to Mourn Over, or Are We Just a Bunch of Hypocrites?

The name 'Cecil' has been in the news a LOT in the past few weeks. You'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard of how this famous and beloved lion was shot in an illegal hunt by an American dentist in Zimbabwe. Shortly after the lion's death, an international outcry took global media by storm. #CeciltheLion became a worldwide trend, and newsfeeds from around the world were filled with posts about the endangered species.

NBC News

However, unknown to this ripple in the waves, another movement grew alongside the outrage- that of ridicule at the fact that the death of a single lion garnered more response in a few days than the deaths of hundreds of Zimbabwean children dying of hunger every single day.

My take? The death of a child is no meagre thing- it is certainly a huge deal. When a child is killed because of something that could have been avoided, it's a blow to our species, to our humanity. But at the same time, this doesn't mean that a lion's life is worth anything less. To the ones who keep thinking that it's plain hypocrisy to mourn a lion's life, think about the actual number of lions that still exist today. The lion is a greatly threatened species, yet the human population continues to grow steadily with time. And why is the lion population in decline? Because they are hunted, savagely killed, and face exploitation in their natural habitat.

All I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't use the death of a lion as an excuse to call out on people who have expressed their outrage at the situation. In fact, we should breathe in with relief, because the attention Cecil has received is proof of the little humanity left in all of us.